Share

Listen to world’s tiniest radio receiver play Christmas music

Dec. 20, 2016

If you need a little Christmas right this very minute, Harvard University physicists created just the thing: a radio receiver the size of two atoms. The radio, NPR reports, is probably the world’s smallest. Radios have five basic components: a power source, a receiver, a transducer, a tuner, and a speaker. Using a technique called nitrogen-vacancy, the researchers manipulated the atoms in a diamond crystal to function as the receiver, according to the paper in the journal Physical Review Applied. Add a green laser for power, an electromagnet as the tuner, a device called a photodiode as a transducer, and all that’s left to do is grab a pair of headphones and tune in. Because ‘tis the season, the researchers put together a Christmas tape for holly jolly listeners.